James N Wood

James N. Wood, who helped the J. Paul Getty Trust regain its good name as its president and chief executive over the last three years and led the Art Institute of Chicago through 24 years of growth, died Friday, Getty officials announced. He was 69. Wood's body was found late Friday at his Brentwood home, Getty spokesman Ron Hartwig said. A statement by the Getty Trust said Wood died of natural causes. Wood had been expected to fly to Chicago on Friday morning for a meeting; when he failed to arrive, his wife, art historian and painter Emese Forizs, received a call in Rhode Island where she was with family, Hartwig said.

James N. Wood, who helped the J. Paul Getty Trust regain its good name as its president and chief executive over the last three years and led the Art Institute of Chicago through 24 years of growth, died Friday, Getty officials announced. He was 69. Wood's body was found late Friday at his Brentwood home, Getty spokesman Ron Hartwig said. A statement by the Getty Trust said Wood died of natural causes. Wood had been expected to fly to Chicago on Friday morning for a meeting; when he failed to arrive, his wife, art historian and painter Emese Forizs, received a call in Rhode Island where she was with family, Hartwig said.

James N. Wood, the new president of the J. Paul Getty Trust, owes his job partly to the indiscretions of his globetrotting predecessor. On Wednesday, in his first speaking engagement in L.A. since arriving to lend his 40 years of museum experience to the image-challenged Getty, he spoke repeatedly about the need to run it with a keen view toward acting locally.

James N. Wood, the new president of the J. Paul Getty Trust, owes his job partly to the indiscretions of his globetrotting predecessor. On Wednesday, in his first speaking engagement in L.A. since arriving to lend his 40 years of museum experience to the image-challenged Getty, he spoke repeatedly about the need to run it with a keen view toward acting locally.

May 11, 1990 | GREG BRAXTON, Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation's press

Major Art Auction: The Art Institute of Chicago is putting 11 works on the auction block, including paintings by Monet, Picasso, Modigliani, Utrillo and Degas, to raise the $12-million purchase price of a bronze sculpture, "Golden Bird," by Constantin Brancusi. The Art Institute, which in the past has resisted selling works to purchase others, is making an exception in this case, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday. Director James N.

The Art Institute of Chicago is putting 11 works on the auction block, including paintings by Monet, Picasso, Modigliani, Utrillo and Degas, to raise the $12-million purchase price of a bronze sculpture, "Golden Bird," by Constantin Brancusi. The Art Institute, which in the past has resisted selling works to purchase others, is making an exception in this case, the Chicago Sun-Times reported today. "To let the Brancusi leave is unthinkable," Director James N. Wood said.

Come to the cabaret: Liza Minnelli, among others, is expected to perform Oct. 25 at the annual Actors' Fund benefit, which will pay tribute to songwriters John Kander and Fred Ebb, who wrote many of Minnelli's career highlights, including her Tony-winning "Flora, the Red Menace" and her Oscar-winning "Cabaret." The event is at the Luckman Theatre at Cal State L.A.

A. James Speyer, a well-known curator of painting and sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago, has died after a long illness. He was 73. Speyer, who died Sunday, gained a reputation as a dynamic force in the contemporary art scene during his 25-year tenure at the institute, counting as friends such artists as Jasper Johns, Frank Stella and Georgia O'Keeffe.

Even the Getty Trust, the world's richest arts institution, is hurting in today's bleak economy. In an in-house memo addressed to "All Getty Staff," James N. Wood, Getty Trust chief executive, warned that the Getty is facing "a difficult period ahead" because the value of its endowment, which ended the 2008 fiscal year (on June 30) at $5.98 billion, has since declined "roughly 25%."

A. James Speyer, a well-known curator of painting and sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago, has died after a long illness. He was 73. Speyer, who died Sunday, gained a reputation as a dynamic force in the contemporary art scene during his 25-year tenure at the institute, counting as friends such artists as Jasper Johns, Frank Stella and Georgia O'Keeffe.

Visitors looking for certain works by John Singleton Copley, James McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer and Georgia O'Keeffe, among other artists, will need to go to a new address when Chicago's Terra Museum of American Art closes its doors on North Michigan Avenue in late October next year.

From the time James N. Wood left Williams College in western Massachusetts with undergraduate honors in art history 43 years ago, he has spent his life immersed in art and art museums. The news that the J. Paul Getty Trust has named a new president and chief executive would be important in any case, but it takes on special significance because it is Wood. His record as an art professional marks a Getty first.